Zakharia 7

Bagian: Teguran terhadap kemunafikan umat Israel

1 Pada tanggal 7 Desember dalam tahun keempat pemerintahan Raja Darius, saya menerima pesan TUHAN. 2 Pada hari itu penduduk Betel mengutus Sar Ezer, Regem Melek, dan beberapa orang lain datang ke rumah TUHAN untuk meminta petunjuk dari TUHAN Panglima Semesta. Mereka bertanya kepada para imam dan nabi, “Selama bertahun-tahun, setiap bulan kelima kami sudah berpuasa untuk meratapi rumah TUHAN yang dihancurkan tentara Babel. Apakah kami harus terus melakukannya?” 4 Lalu saya menerima pesan dari TUHAN, 5 “Jawablah para imam dan penduduk Israel: Selama tujuh puluh tahun ketika kalian berpuasa setiap bulan kelima dan ketujuh, apakah kalian melakukannya dengan hati yang benar-benar bertobat dan berbalik kepada-Ku? 6 Tidak! Biarpun kalian makan atau tidak makan, kalian hanya memikirkan dirimu sendiri dan tidak kembali kepada-Ku. 7 Jadi, jawaban-Ku masih sama seperti yang disampaikan oleh para nabi sebelumnya: Lakukanlah yang adil dan jujur. Tunjukkan belas kasihan dan kebaikan hati kepada sesamamu. Jangan menindas para janda dan anak yatim, orang asing, ataupun orang miskin. Jangan sekali-kali berencana untuk melakukan kejahatan terhadap sesamamu.
“Itulah yang Aku, TUHAN Panglima Semesta, sampaikan kepada nenek moyang kalian ketika kalian masih hidup makmur di Yerusalem, di kota-kota sekitarnya, dan di padang belantara Negeb. 11 “Tetapi nenek moyangmu keras kepala dan menutup telinga terhadap perintah-Ku, 12 Sang Panglima Semesta. Sekalipun mereka berulang kali mendengar pesan yang disampaikan Roh-Ku melalui para nabi, mereka tetap tidak mau menaati hukum dan peringatan-Ku. Hati mereka keras seperti batu. Itulah sebabnya Aku memurkai mereka. 13 “Ketika Aku memanggil, mereka tidak mau mendengar. Jadi ketika mereka memanggil-Ku, Aku pun tidak mau mendengar. 14 Seperti angin puting beliung, Aku mencerai-beraikan mereka ke negeri-negeri yang jauh. Tanah Israel yang dulunya subur dibiarkan menjadi tandus hingga tidak ada seorang pun yang mau melewatinya. Akibat kekerasan hati mereka, negeri yang indah itu menjadi sunyi dan sepi.”

1 In the fourth year of King Darius, Yahweh’s word came to Zechariah in the fourth day of the ninth month, the month of Chislev. 2 The people of Bethel sent Sharezer and Regem Melech and their men to entreat Yahweh’s favor, 3 and to speak to the priests of the house of Yahweh of Armies and to the prophets, saying, “Should I weep in the fifth month, separating myself, as I have done these so many years?” 4 Then the word of Yahweh of Armies came to me, saying, 5 “Speak to all the people of the land and to the priests, saying, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month for these seventy years, did you at all fast to me, really to me? 6 When you eat and when you drink, don’t you eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves? 7 Aren’t these the words which Yahweh proclaimed by the former prophets when Jerusalem was inhabited and in prosperity, and its cities around her, and the South and the lowland were inhabited?’” 8 Yahweh’s word came to Zechariah, saying, 9 “Thus has Yahweh of Armies spoken, saying, ‘Execute true judgment, and show kindness and compassion every man to his brother. 10 Don’t oppress the widow, the fatherless, the foreigner, nor the poor; and let none of you devise evil against his brother in your heart.’ 11 But they refused to listen, and turned their backs, and stopped their ears, that they might not hear. 12 Yes, they made their hearts as hard as flint, lest they might hear the law and the words which Yahweh of Armies had sent by his Spirit by the former prophets. Therefore great wrath came from Yahweh of Armies. 13 It has come to pass that, as he called and they refused to listen, so they will call and I will not listen,” said Yahweh of Armies; 14 “but I will scatter them with a whirlwind among all the nations which they have not known. Thus the land was desolate after them, so that no man passed through nor returned; for they made the pleasant land desolate.”